Apple's T2 chip will prevent hackers from eavesdropping on your microphone
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Re: Apple's T2 chip will prevent hackers from eavesdropping on your microphone
#2Why is it so hard to believe the headline?
Re: Apple's T2 chip will prevent hackers from eavesdropping on your microphone
#3> The chip comes with a hardware microphone disconnect feature that physically cuts the device’s microphone from the rest of the hardware whenever the lid is closed
Why do you need a chip for this? Can't you just break the circuit with a regular dumb physical switch? Or is this a much more complex problem than it first appears?
Re: Apple's T2 chip will prevent hackers from eavesdropping on your microphone
#4This only protects when the lid is closed, but many people leave the lid open on their desk.
I would love to see a light come on if the camera or microphone is receiving power, and then only turn on power to these devices when a program requests it.
Re: Apple's T2 chip will prevent hackers from eavesdropping on your microphone
#5> The chip comes with a hardware microphone disconnect feature that physically cuts the device’s microphone from the rest of the hardware whenever the lid is closed Why do you need a chip for this? Can't you just break the circuit with a regular dumb physical switch? Or is this a much more complex problem than it first appears?
Who controls the switch? You need an entire secure system distinct from the untrusted CPU - or a manual switch on the side. The latter goes against everything Apple believes in design wise.
Re: Apple's T2 chip will prevent hackers from eavesdropping on your microphone
#6> The chip comes with a hardware microphone disconnect feature that physically cuts the device’s microphone from the rest of the hardware whenever the lid is closed Why do you need a chip for this? Can't you just break the circuit with a regular dumb physical switch? Or is this a much more complex problem than it first appears?
Who controls the switch? You need an entire secure system distinct from the untrusted CPU - or a manual switch on the side. The latter goes against everything Apple believes in design wise.
I'm suggesting the lid could control the switch, physically, as in when you close it the mic's circuit is broken.
Re: Apple's T2 chip will prevent hackers from eavesdropping on your microphone
#7Why is it so hard to believe the headline?
Has Apple security record on electronics been ever broken? I don’t think so. If there is an exploit yet, at least it’s not publicly known and no-one has seen it for sale on the black market, so it would be in the millions. I’d say Apple is trustworthy as far as I’m concerned, perhaps not trustworthy enough if the threat model is Hillary-level politics, but trustworthy enough for a billion dollars business.
Re: Apple's T2 chip will prevent hackers from eavesdropping on your microphone
#8Why is it so hard to believe the headline?
Your own biases?
Re: Apple's T2 chip will prevent hackers from eavesdropping on your microphone
#9> The chip comes with a hardware microphone disconnect feature that physically cuts the device’s microphone from the rest of the hardware whenever the lid is closed Why do you need a chip for this? Can't you just break the circuit with a regular dumb physical switch? Or is this a much more complex problem than it first appears?
Who controls the switch? You need an entire secure system distinct from the untrusted CPU - or a manual switch on the side. The latter goes against everything Apple believes in design wise.
What about a physical killswitch goes against Apple's design? The iPhone has always had a ringer/vibrate switch on its side since it was introduced. Obviously it doesn't do anything hardware-wise, but it's still a switch that disables some functionality.
Re: Apple's T2 chip will prevent hackers from eavesdropping on your microphone
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Who controls the switch? You need an entire secure system distinct from the untrusted CPU - or a manual switch on the side. The latter goes against everything Apple believes in design wise.
I'm suggesting the lid could control the switch, physically, as in when you close it the mic's circuit is broken.
Yea that could work. I think this is cheaper for them surprisingly enough. Switches are expensive.